Some people say I go a little over the top in my speeches lately about the risks of Google love.
Maybe it’s true. I do however think this is a must read article by John Arlidge in the Times of London.Google. Who’s looking at you? (Times of London)
“It wants to know everything about you. It wants to be your best friend — or your Big Brother. Are your secrets safe with Google?”
Be careful out there. This article should be must reading in all information literacy education. Our users (and ourselves) should be making conscious choices.
Of course, you don’t encounter these risks with licensed library databases, searches and OPACs.
Stephen

I’m not sure there is a guarantee that licensed library databases or OPACs aren’t collecting personal data.
There is a question about how much ‘personal’ information we are willing to give up to improve the results we get from systems.

The lower risk with library-licensed resources is moot if they are unaffordable to most libraries. Individually and institutionally, we have a choice between paying with money or paying with privacy. For most people, the risk of less privacy is distant and abstract whereas the absence of funding is present and concrete.
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Yep – if only more libraries got better at group licensing and lobbying for money for statewide adoption. And if they went beyond their type of library false borders in their cooperation too.
SA

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About The Author

Stephen Abram is a librarian and principal with Lighthouse Consulting Inc., and executive director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. He blogs on library strategies for direction, marketing, technology and user alignment.